Project lead
Micaela Lois
Abstract
Entrepreneurial ecosystems (EEs) have become a popular framework for understanding entrepreneurship as an actor-centred approach focusing on entrepreneurs and their economic environment (Schäfer & Mayer, 2019; Stam, 2015). Yet this perspective has been criticized for its implicit assumption that all entrepreneurs have equal access to resources and support (Brush et al., 2019). In practice, supporting structures are not equally accessible to everyone (Cowell et al., 2018; Neumeyer, 2022; Neumeyer et al., 2019). Entrepreneurs’ diverse identities and everyday socio-spatial contexts are often overlooked in EE debates (Welter, 2011; Welter et al., 2017; Yamamura et al., 2022). These limitations are particularly evident for migrant women entrepreneurs, who face double disadvantages as women and as minorities (Aman et al., 2022). They face systemic exclusion and both implicit and explicit forms of discrimination (Haandrikman & Webster, 2020), alongside barriers such as limited legal knowledge, language difficulties, and racism (Meyer et al., 2023). In addition, they often struggle to be seen as credible because of their gender (Aman et al., 2022; McAdam et al., 2019). Such barriers deepen exclusion and limit access to resources, making it difficult for migrant women entrepreneurs to build connections within EEs and develop feelings of belonging, both of which, as David et al. (2025) argue, form the foundation for achieving embeddedness and integration in an ecosystem. Despite their economic and social contributions, their experiences remain underexplored, highlighting the need for intersectional perspectives in understanding their realities (Aman et al., 2022).
My thesis explores the spaces and experiences of inclusion and exclusion of migrant women entrepreneurs in Zurich’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, using an intersectional perspective. Zurich is a particularly relevant case study because while its ecosystem is well established and globally connected, significant structural inequalities influence who can participate and benefit from it. For instance, less than 40% of founders are women, with the proportion of migrant women being even lower (Federal Statistical Office, 2024). To capture diverse entrepreneurial experiences, I focus on two groups: startup founders and “everyday entrepreneurs” who are small business owners, as most businesses in Switzerland are small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). By including both groups, this research avoids reproducing the dominant high-growth bias in EE scholarship (Fritsch, 2024; Welter et al., 2017) and provides a more nuanced understanding of how migrant women navigate barriers and opportunities in different entrepreneurial settings.
This research is guided by the following research questions:
- In which spaces and in relation to which actors do migrant women entrepreneurs feel included or excluded within Zurich’s entrepreneurial ecosystem?
- How do intersectional social categories of difference, such as age, ethnicity, family status, migration background, and socioeconomic status, shape these experiences?
- What strategies and coping mechanisms do they develop in response, and how do these practices in turn influence the ecosystems they operate in?
Methodologically, the research is grounded in feminist economic geography and employs a creative, participatory approach. Beyond conventional qualitative interviews, participants are invited to build physical models of their entrepreneurial ecosystems with LEGO® blocks by mapping key actors, networks, institutions, and spaces. These models, together with reflective discussions, reveal how migrant women experience feelings of belonging, exclusion, comfort, and discomfort across different spaces of the ecosystem. This approach shows structural barriers while also capturing the spatial, relational, and affective dimensions of entrepreneurship. By combining intersectional analysis with participatory feminist methods, the study generates situated and embodied knowledge of how power is materially and emotionally expressed in Zurich’s entrepreneurial landscape.
Supervision
Prof. Dr. Heike Mayer (University of Bern), Prof. Dr. Carolin Schurr (University of Bern)
Discipline
Economic Geography
